One month after two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck northern Venezuela on 24 June, the official death toll stands at 5,398, with 16,740 people injured, according to the Venezuelan government. The tremors, separated by 39 seconds, caused extensive destruction in the coastal state of La Guaira and the capital Caracas. Authorities report that 23,335 people remain in temporary shelters, while the government has not issued an official count of the missing. A civil-society website tracking the disappeared lists more than 29,000 people unaccounted for, though this figure remains unverified.

Damage assessments diverge sharply. The World Bank’s preliminary estimate puts direct physical damage at $19.6 billion, with residential buildings accounting for nearly half the total. The UN’s earlier rapid assessment, however, cited $37 billion. Both institutions agree that La Guaira and the Capital District bore the brunt, with the World Bank noting that one in five homes in La Guaira was destroyed. The Bank warns reconstruction could take more than a decade without a significant increase in public and private investment. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has pledged 4,000 new homes by year’s end and 10,000 by 2027, while the IMF has released $346 million from Venezuela’s reserves for humanitarian aid and debris clearance.

Humanitarian organisations have raised particular alarm over the plight of pregnant women and newborns. Save the Children estimates that 36,700 pregnant women are among those affected, with 4,000 expected to give birth in the coming month—roughly 130 deliveries a day. The main maternity hospital in La Guaira remains closed, and many women are living in makeshift shelters with limited access to prenatal care, clean water, and sanitation. The charity warns that high stress levels and malnutrition risk increasing premature births and low birth weights.

Viewed from neighbouring Colombia, the reconstruction effort is also being assessed as a commercial opportunity. Colombian export associations have identified potential demand worth over $1.9 billion for construction materials, food, medicines, and industrial goods, with the departments of Valle del Cauca and Antioquia best positioned to supply. Colombian foundations and retailers have dispatched tonnes of humanitarian aid. Venezuela’s pre-existing economic fragility—a poverty rate above 76% and a prolonged contraction—compounds the challenge. A month after the quakes, search operations have largely given way to humanitarian relief and the first stages of rebuilding, with the death toll still subject to revision.